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       EVSAG Meeting        28 June 2007          Gothenburg
       =====================================================


              eVLBI status report - Effelsberg
              --------------------------------

1) Work has finally begun on digging the trench for laying
optical fibre from the Effelsberg telescope to the MPIfR
building in Bonn. This will be an MPG-owned link. Approximate
cost is ~1 M Euro.  Physical laying of the fibre should nominally
be completed by 19 October. Thereafter, MPI will "equip and
configure it".

The link will initially provide 1 x 10 Gbps line and (2 or 3) x 1 Gbps 
lines, notionally 3 x 1 Gbps for LOFAR and 1 x 1 Gbps for eVBLI.

Note: there are plans to upgrade Mk5A->Mk5B in Effelsberg this summer.

2) MPG will also finance a fibre link from the MPIfR building to the
new DFN "XWIN" POP at the University of Bonn.
This should be ready by Sep/Nov 2007.

3) The link(s) between U. Bonn and the JIVE correlator (and to
LOFAR), and their costs, are currently being investigated.


R. Porcas


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Hi John

We expect to have the 1 Gbps line from Yebes to JIVE working in January 2008.

According to our engineers' schedule, at that time we should have available:
- a 22 GHz receiver
- (hopefully) the S/X receiver,
- a 3mm one (for GMVA)

By mid 2008 we expect the C-band receiver (5 and 6 GHz).

This is not a compromise (yet), just a best guess.

The 40m will also be involved in geodetic VLBI observations; the IVS is 
studying to request our participation in the "R1" sessions (once per week). 
We'll see if this happens, and how this may affect availability for ToOs 
(should not!).

I will not attend the meeting in Sweden (pity!).

Best regards

	Paco

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Onsala VLBI capabilities, eVSAG-meeting, Onsala June 25, 2007

Mark5:

* We have a Mark5A.

* We have purchased the recommend JIVE upgrade kit (CPU/memory, etc). Will
upgrade during the summer.

* Mark5B+ upgrade: Wait for JIVE?

EVN PC:

* EVN PC: only used for the 7 month demo. Geodesy uses it
frequently though.

Network:

* We have 1 Gbps.

* We plan to upgrade to 10 Gbps during the autumn.

Telescope:

* We can do e-VLBI with either the 20m or the 25m telescope
at the EVN standard bands.

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Observatory Reports
Istituto di Radioastronomia



Medicina Station
----------------

Optical Fibre link

The Medicina station is connected to the POP of the Garr/Geant  network by  
an optical fibre with a path 140 Km long. On this long path the allowed 
maximum speed is 1 Gbit/sec.  Works are in progress to connect the 
station  with  a  shorter path  (40 Km) and a dark fiber.   
At the beginning of May 2007 we installed a new switch-router ( Extreme 
Summit X450 ) that  will mount  optical converter ( GBIC ) for a speed  
of 10Gbit/sec.  Tests with this new equipment tranferring data to JIVE 
showed a sustained speed of  810 Mbit/sec with peaks of  950Mbit/sec 
(memory to memory). In Mark-V acquisition  Medicina can  work at 512 
Mbit/sec. The light path Milano-Dwingeloo has been activated, and 
tests show that the baud rate can reach ~900 Mbit/s.


Noto Station
------------

Optical Fiber Link
We are still behind.
We are trying to establish some contact with the Sicily Local Government
and with INFN, to start the construction of the infrastructure.


SRT
---

Optical Fiber Link
The Sardinia Local Government promised to take care of the infrastructure,
and ensures that the optical fiber connection will be in place at the
telescope first light.

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                   Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory
		               e-VLBI Prospects
			         25 June 2007

Present capabilities:

  Effectively none.

Future capabilities:

  The last mile has now been dug and a fibre cable laid with final splicing
  and installation of cabinets to follow later this week.  However no definite
  plans are in place yet about provisioning of termination equipment nor yet
  connectivity at the other end of this new fibre.

  However discussions with the (not yet established) SANReN suggest that a
  temporary link may well be setup within a timescale of 2-3 months enabling
  use of spare outbound capacity on current academic bandwidth sufficient
  to carry up to 128 Mbps.  Future plans include commissioning of the new
  SANReN to succeed that with sufficient capacity to carry up to 512 Mbps
  initially, hopefully within the 2008/9 timeframe.

  e-VLBI continues to have a high profile within SANReN, as it seen as an
  important milestone to achieve in support of South Africa's bid to host
  the SKA.


Jonathan Quick
HartRAO eVSAG Representative

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Irbene written report

The internet connection 1Gbit/s Irbene - Ventspils University College (Last mile!) is now established. There is 16 Mbit/s on the moment connection from Ventspils to outer world but soon the (during July) 100 Mbit/s will be established (. For special purposes the 1Gbit/s link via the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm is possible. However a special agreement could be necessary for big data transfers.
The Irbene site has now a Mark 5A registration device, the purchase of upgrade kit to Mark 5B is planned this year. The constructing of DBBC by Noto is under way. 
On the moment Irbene has suitable for EVN VLBI only the 12 GHz band receiver. The construction of 5 GHz band receiver is under way. It could be ready near of the end of this year.      
 

 eVLBI : Arecibo Station Report
------------------------------

Current status: Arecibo has a VLBA4 data acquisition rack, and a suite
of receivers covering VLBI frequencies between 0.327 and 10 GHz (with
an L-band SEFD of ~2.5Jy). A Mk5A recorder is presently used, and plans
for upgrading to MK5B are being developed. We are also watching the
progress on wide-band DBE development in anticipation of obtaining such
a system for Ar in the near future. The current internet connectivity
of Arecibo is via the ATM-based PRISAnet to the Florida International
University NAP and AMPATH with  a maximum capacity of 155 Mbps.
However, this is shared between three campuses of the University of
Puerto Rico and the Observatory.  In practice, following initial eVLBI
success with EVN at 32 Mbps (and on one occasion 64 Mbps), the actual
data connectivity between JIVE and Ar since summer 2005 has never
exceeded even 20 Mbps during several test runs.

Near-term future:  Our network provider, (Centennial, a telephone
company in PR), is now upgrading their island-wide backbone to a
multi-gigabit system.  They have made an offer to the Observatory and
UPR to upgrade our link to Florida considerably at an (for now)
affordable cost.  The current plan to achieve 512-Mbps connectivity is
based on a gigabit Ethernet link via Centennial's on-island MPLS (Multi
Protocol Layered Switching) network and FIU's AtlanticWave/NLR
connection.  An essential ingredient of the mix is that UPR will allow
us to "borrow" their upgraded commodity Internet bandwidth (300+ Mbps)
for short periods, and there will be an MoU between UPR/AO to formalize
this agreement.  At our end we have bought the gigabit ethernet
interface for our router (capable of driving 70 km single-mode fibers)
as requested by Centennial.  We expect all pieces of this upgrade to be
in place when the telescope comes back into service in August/September
on completion of the on-going painting of the suspended feed
structure.

Longer-term plan: Technology already exists (or will do so in the next
few months) for a full 1-Gbps connectivity to Arecibo. However, this
would be at a much higher cost than both Arecibo and UPR can afford at
present. A development that we are watching carefully is that Centennial
has contracted with Alcatel for a fiber connection to the neighboring
island of St. Croix, a Global Crossing landfall. This opens the 
possibility of bringing a much higher (e.g. 10 Gbps) connection
to Puerto Rico. We will have to work out some way of funding this
project for the coming years, but at least such a solution will be
technologically possible within that time frame.






